Covid-19: CSIR-developed Oxygen Concentrator unit to be in markets soon to meet oxygen crisis

By Suchitra Mukherjee
New Delhi [India], April 16 : To meet the increased demand for medical oxygen in view of the surge in Covid-19 infections in the country, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-Indian Institute of Petroleum (CSIR-IIP), Dehradun and the Durgapur-based Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute (CMERI) have developed oxygen concentrators and enrichment unit solutions for quickly setting up on-site oxygen enrichment units in hospitals itself.
According to CSIR Director-General Dr Shekhar Mande, the new oxygen unit which can be installed anywhere and requires about 50 to 100 square feet area in a shaded area, will be soon in markets to meet the increased demand for oxygen in the market.
"The CSIR-IIP developed Oxygen Concentrator Unit has a capacity of about 500 litres per minute. This unit can generate oxygen from the air and uses the pressure swing adsorption technique (PSA). The PSA method uses adsorbing materials which help in separating gases from the air," said Dr Mande.
He explained that air has about 70 per cent nitrogen and 20 per cent oxygen and the PSA method separates nitrogen and enriches the oxygen in the air.
"The advantage with this (PSA) method is that it can be used at room temperature and other techniques require separating gases at cryogenic temperature. The method developed at CSIR-IIP is good and uses new adsorbing material. CSIR-IIP has generated a complete know-how and an end to end technology where it can be installed in different places," he added.
The CSIR DG said that the Oxygen Enrichment Unit developed by CSIR and the CMERI is similar to IIP technology but it is smaller and generates 10-30 litres per minute.
"This also uses an air compressor and then enriches oxygen from the air," he said.
Dr Mande said that big hospitals usually have their own oxygen enrichment devices, while the smaller hospitals normally use cylinder based system which needs to be refilled periodically and need manual intervention.
"However, the technology developed by CSIR generates oxygen locally and then integrates it into the hospital oxygen distribution system which is very useful. It is very cost-effective compared to cylinder based and cryogenic oxygen. It reduces the manual intervention too," he said.
The CSIR DG informed that the institute has shared its latest technologies with a few private companies and is in talks with many other larger players to take it to the masses.
"Our demo plant is already running up in Dehradun and it generates about 500 litres per minute. Regulatory approvals have been obtained by National Accredited Board and the manufacturing and receiving orders is required. The demo has to be replicated and scaled up on a large scale. The companies that have received the license aims to do so in the coming few days," he added.